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What You Want (music video)
The music video for "What You Want" started filming on July 30, 2011 in a warehouse in Brooklyn, New York, and it was directed by Meiert Avis. The video featured their fans who were playing a crowd on a concert by Evanescence. During an interview, Lee revealed that the music video for the song was one of their most real videos that the band has ever made adding, "this is more a personal video. We've done a lot in the past that were very 'fantasy,' and this is sort of the real us.... I just wanted to do something that really felt personal for a change. Obviously, I'm wearing crazy makeup, and that's not my everyday, but, you know, I want ... to connect with the fans again. We all do. We miss them. A lot of this record is about them, and that's why they're going to be here and be in it, too." In an interview with MTV News, she described the concept of the video: "This video is sort of, like, the history of the band. This club set is emulating old shows we used to play in the beginning — we used to play this club called Vino's in Little Rock Arkansas — it's sort of like back then, the gritty, dirty club, sweaty. And basically, it's also about New York, where I've been, and where bassist Tim McCord lived in the past few years since we've been gone. And it's sort of about escaping New York and.... coming back out into the world." However, before the filming of the video, the band was still finishing the album and when it came time to shoot the video Lee didn't had an idea about how it should look like. Because the song was different for the band, she knew that they didn't want to "go the classic, sort of fantastic, epic thing. I mean it's still epic, but we didn't want to go the classic route — I wanted to do something different." Lee asked her sister Carrie to help her around the concept of the video. Her sister said that they should film the video for the song in New York and Lee thought it would be great, "She just started saying things that were right on. She was like, 'This should be in New York. You guys need to do something different, this song feels different.' And she started talking about running across the Brooklyn Bridge, and it being where I live, and I was like, 'Oh my God, this is great.'" However, the final shot of the video filmed at Coney Island was her idea. The shot represented the band coming back in the world and "heading into the unknown, coming into a new world".60 Lee said that the final shot was difficult because Terry Balsamo "especially did not want to get in the water." She added, "It was a little cold. I loved it though. I think the guys did, too." The video begins with shots of several skyscrapers in New York, which are followed by scenes of the band performing in a warehouse that has been converted into a stage (similar to Vino's bar which is where the band used to regularly perform before they became popular59). The crowd on the concert is singing along with the band as Lee waves her hair in front of them. The video continually cuts Amy Lee walking through Brooklyn in a dark dress and makeup. She walks through a train station, streets and the Brooklyn Bridge. During the bridge of the song, Lee runs through the Brooklyn Bridge and jumps on the other side, landing perfectly on her feet. At the end of the video, the band meet up and walk to the beach where they walk into the sea. The final shot shows the band walking in the sea as the video fades out which symbolizes a new beginning for them. A twenty-two second teaser of the video was released on September 9. The video for the song officially premiered on the Internet on September 13, 2011.61 It was also made available for digital download on iTunes Store the same day. James Montgomery from MTV News, said that the video was a departure for the band "eschewing the dark fantasy worlds they've created in previous videos in favor of good old-fashioned realism: the blood, sweat and tears that not only took them to the top, but have fueled their current comeback, too."59 Later, he added that the video "recalls the halcyon days of big-ticket rock videos" and some "claustrophobic, cathartic performance footage."61 He called it "a true band clip; it's artfully autobiographical and, perhaps most notably, features all of Evanescence."61 Entertainment Weekly's Grady Smith, called the video "heavy goth-rock head-banger" and added that the shots of Lee falling from the bridge were similar to the music video for "Bring Me to Life" (2003).63 Melinda Newman of the website HitFix compared the video with the movies The Crow (1994) and Run Lola Run (1998). She further praised the lighting, the photographs and the mood which according to her, were "perfection, especially the city scapes at night and the intense looks on the fans faces, as they are enraptured by Lee. It's a big budget shoot, the kind we don't see that much of anymore."39 Jason Lipshutz of the magazine Billboard praised the video with its "crystal-clear" shots of the concert and the "hazy" shots of Lee running through New York.64 A more negative review of the video was given by Laurie Tuffrey of NME who called the video "uninspiring".23 He further found CCTV effects and concluded that Lee was "looking for some love to infect" while running through Brooklyn streets.23 Nicole James of MTV Buzzyworthy simply said "rock videos + themes = the only kind of math I like" referring to the music video for "What You Want". Category:Music Videos